Microwave [dEF1] status codewhat it means

A microwave showing dEF1 or dEF2 is waiting for you to tell it something, not reporting a problem. They are the two defrost programmes — one works from the weight you enter, the other from a time you set — and pressing the defrost button once or twice is what selects between them. Which of the two is by weight and which by time varies between models, and the manual for your appliance is the only reliable answer; what does not vary is that neither is a fault. It is worth a page because of what surrounds it.

Twenty-one Russell Hobbs microwave manuals were searched for fault codes and none contains any, and dEF1 and dEF2 are the only display strings in them — so an owner of one of those appliances who goes looking for a code list will find these two and reasonably conclude they have found error codes. They have found the defrost menu. That pattern holds across most of the UK budget market. Cookworks publish no microwave fault codes across thirteen manuals. Morphy Richards publish none across twenty-two. George Home’s troubleshooting section is two rows long and both are about the plug and the door.

Tower publish no instruction manuals at all, and their own site uses the word "manual" to mean a microwave with knobs rather than a document, which is a genuine trap when searching. Hisense’s answer to any fault is a phone number. If your microwave is one of these, the honest position is that no code list exists for it, and any site offering one has borrowed it from a different appliance. One aside for Russell Hobbs specifically: their microwave manuals are published under licence by another company rather than by Russell Hobbs, so even the document is at one remove from the badge.

1. 1

   Press cancel or stop and see whether the display clears to the clock. A mode selection clears; a fault comes back.

2. 2

   If you did want to defrost, enter the weight or the time your model asks for and press start. Check the manual for which of dEF1 and dEF2 is which, because the order is not consistent between models.

3. 3

   If the display returns to dEF1 on its own without anyone touching it, look at the defrost button for a spill or a key sitting proud, which is the one way this becomes a real fault.

4. 4

   Before searching for a code list for your brand, check whether one exists. Several of the largest UK budget brands publish none at all, and a list found elsewhere is likely to belong to a different appliance.